Xephyr is a modern X Server in a window which can be used to simulate small displays in a desktop development enviroment. It is maintained on the OpenedHand projects page. Xephyr is now part of xorg-server. Please note that even though it will render Openmoko pixel for pixel, it will likely display almost 4 times larger than the actual device since portable devices tend to have smaller pixels than computer monitors.

You might need to install fonts supplied by Openmoko to your host system. The easiest way to do is in Gnome is to go Preferences -> Font - > Details -> Go to font folder and then drag and drop TTF font files from build/tmp/rootfs/usr/share/fonts/ in Nautilus.
Using Xubuntu (no Gnome) I found copying the ttf folder into /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts worked.

Xoo further extends Xephyr as to provide a poor mans device emulator. It is intended for embedded developers that want to simulate a target device (with an accurate display size, working hardware buttons, themed display, etc) on a desktop machine.

The goal of this page is to show you how to run an Openmoko development image on your host x86 development machine in a chrooted environment.

What is Xephyr

Xephyr is a modern X Server in a window which can be used to simulate small displays in a desktop development enviroment. It is maintained on the OpenedHand projects page. Xephyr is now part of xorg-server. Please note that even though it will render Openmoko pixel for pixel, it will likely display almost 4 times larger than the actual device since portable devices tend to have smaller pixels than computer monitors.

Xephyr on your system

gentoo

To have it on your system, add kdrive flag in /etc/make.conf or on your x11-base/xorg-server use flags.

Starting the nested X server

Supplying fonts

You might need to install fonts supplied by Openmoko to your host system. The easiest way to do is in Gnome is to go Preferences -> Font - > Details -> Go to font folder and then drag and drop TTF font files from build/tmp/rootfs/usr/share/fonts/ in Nautilus.
Using Xubuntu (no Gnome) I found copying the ttf folder into /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts worked.

Launching Xephyr

In another terminal (not related to mokobox), start Xephyr

Xephyr :1 -ac -2button -host-cursor -screen 480x640

Add -dpi 140 or anything that fits you to get bigger fonts and better readability.

Start X Client

Now, back in chroo'ted environment, start X client:

eval $(dbus-launch)
/etc/X11/Xsession

You should see Openmoko booting in the Xephyr window.

A sample script

Please do not use this script. It is simply wrong and will do harm to your host file system! The chroot has to be done earlier, otherwise the script modifies/deletes stuff in your host /etc directory.

The following script sets up the most of root fs environment automatically

Improving Display Realism - Extending Xephyr with Xoo

Xoo further extends Xephyr as to provide a poor mans device emulator. It is intended for embedded developers that want to simulate a target device (with an accurate display size, working hardware buttons, themed display, etc) on a desktop machine.